Friday, October 24, 2008

It's perfect weather for curling up with a good book or magazine, hot cup of coffee and a quilt. Too bad I didn't take the entire day off. Only took 1/2 day, had lunch with some friends and was home by 12:15. Had a great time at lunch, despite the food only being so-so - the conversation was wonderful.

I'd really like to have a whole weekend of the 5 D's, if only not to feel guilty about being lazy. :)

Saturday, October 11, 2008

With Fall Break winding down, we thought we'd take an overnight trip to Chattanooga. We love to walk through Downtown Chattanooga. It's eclectic, to say the least. We've done just about everything there is to do there -

Tennessee Aquarium

Hunter Museum of Art

and of course, Ruby Falls and Rock City.

This time we decided to do the culinary trip. Boy, did we EAT!

For lunch on Friday, we hit Zarzour's. It's a little hole in the wall restaurant with GREAT burgers. It's not in the best part of town, but that adds to the quirkiness of the restaurant. Everyone knows everyone else - we saw several regulars come in and the servers knew exactly what they wanted before they even sat down. Impressive!!!

After lunch, we rode the Incline Railway.It's provides a breath-taking view of Chattanooga. While on top of the mountain, we wondered around admiring the homes and their views of the valley below. Since Hubby is a history buff, we meandered over to the Point Park Battlefield. It was sobering to think of how many men, young and old, lost their lives there. The Point Park visitor's center house an impressive mural done by James Walker, who was an eyewitness to the 'Battle Above the Clouds.' It is worth the trip up the mountain just to see this mural.

We stayed at The Read House. It was originally an inn aimed at attracting railway passengers who were traveling between Atlanta and Chattanooga. Some famous people have stayed at The Read House - Al Capone, Gary Cooper, Winston Churchill and Jefferson Davis, just to name a few. It is also reported to be haunted. Both times we've stayed there, we've had a room on the 4th floor. It didn't occur to me to request room 311 this time. Although, it probably would've freaked the kids out. Hmmm...maybe next time.

Dinner Friday night was at Big River Grille. They brew their own beers and Hubby loves to get their sampler, which is never disappointing and the food's not bad either. We eat at Big River just about everytime we go because the food is so good - if you go, try the meatloaf. It's fantastic.

By now, we are sufficiently STUFFED and decide to walk through the Art District and across the river bridge to the Northshore district and Coolidge Park. It was a lovely evening for a walk, as an added bonus we saw the ISS fly over. Very cool! Coolidge Park has an enormous, indoor carousel. Unfortunately, it was closed but we did get to admire the craftsmanship. Gorgeous!

We traipse back to the Read House and collapse. We all slept like the dead and didn't wake until 9 this morning. Very restful!!! For our final meal in Chattanooga, we hit Aretha Frankenstein's. It's in the Northshore district and is a hole in the wall, however, food is fantastic. On the our son's pancake scale, Aretha's ranked a 4 out of 5. As for the rest of us, we had some form of eggs - omelets and bacon/egg/cheese biscuit. By the way, Aretha's biscuits are to die for. Yum!!!

We're home now...recovering from our whirlwind trip. It was well worth the trip - even if it was just to eat out!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

why the local gas prices don't react as quickly to drops in oil prices as they do to the increases

Case in point - when Hurricane Ike was reeking havoc in the Gulf, gas prices shot up amid assurances that the supply was there to meet the demand. This spike lead to shortages in our area because people panicked. Some places in the South are still feeling the shortages. Now that there seems to be regular deliveries in our area, prices are still well above what they should be given the current oil prices (In the area that I live, there are 3 gas stations within a square mile of each other. The price per gallon of regular unleaded gas ranges from $3.52/gallon to $3.89/gallon. The highest one has come down only $.40 in the last 2 weeks, whereas the other two have dropped twice that amount.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Not only has she started dating, but now she looks so much older than her 15 years with her new specs and hair color. She has wanted to add some color to her hair for quite some time now. My only stipulation was that it had to look NATURAL! None of this blue or purple or jet black hair. So, today we went and had it done. It actually is darker than it appears in the picture. She calls it "Cherry Coke," which is a pretty accurate description. I think it turned out fantastic.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Hubby and I found out this morning that one of his friends/co-worker passed away early Saturday morning after a lengthy battle with cancer. They handled every hurdle and setback with such grace and finesse. Kevin was part of several medical trials at MD Anderson in Houston. It was his thought that even if it didn't help him, maybe...somewhere down the line, it might help someone else.

Words can't begin to express how I feel. My heart goes out to his wife and children. Not only have they lost their beloved husband and father, but they have also lost their home. Their home was in Hurricane Ike's path and was deemed unsafe last week. Deneen had talked of moving to Louisiana after Ike, but that had been put on the back burner when Kevin's health began to rapidly deteriorate.

Keeping up-to-date with how things were going with Kevin & Deneen over the last year or so has helped me to put things into perspective. Life's much too short not to be an active participant. Take the time to tell the ones that mean the most to you that you love them!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Our little girl, who is almost 16, is out on her first official date. They went to the high school football game last night, but her boyfriend was marching in the band so I don't consider that a date. He did pick her up and bring her home on-time. Bonus points!!!

This afternoon, they are going to see Eagle Eye.

Her boyfriend is really nice. Polite and quite the gentleman! He opened the car door for her. I was very impressed!!!